Bmiler Mountain is often overlooked when roots of metal is discussed. Even people who think they never heard of this band, when I bring up "Mississippi Queen", the reaction is "Oh yes, I know that song", and can understand when I mention them as being proto-metal. Unfortunately, for most of the public, that's all they know, and that's too bad. Flowers of Evil is their third album, and a strange one, as it's one half studio, one half live. The title track is typical Mountain, what else can I say. "King's Chorale" is frequently maligned, written by Felix Pappalardi, it's clear that Steve Knight is most dominant here, largely him on organ, although Leslie West provides some guitar too. What's wrong with this piece? I don't see anything wrong, it sounds like your typical piece of atmospheric early '70s prog rock, although it's very brief. "One Last Cold Kiss" is a great piece, almost a bit of a medieval feel to it. If that's Felix Pappalardi singing, it's obvious he's not imitating Jack Bruce the way he did on previous albums. "Crossroader" is almost in Deep Purple territory, Steve Knight providing that similar fuzzed Hammond organ Jon Lord frequently did, although you often wish Steve Knight would cut loose some times (it's Knight's reluctance to solo that caused a rift between Leslie West and him). "Pride and Passion" isn't my favorite, and a bit disjointed. The second half is all live, largely consisting of extended jams. Here's where the problem lies: Steve Knight does not appear to be present here (gave this another listen, yes, he's there, but in a very low-key fashion). I have already mentioned his apparent reluctance to jam (someone stated that "Steve Knight was the most useless musician in rock history", OK, that may be going a bit too far, but his presence was always in the background, he just seemed rather modest, compared to Keith Emerson where he'll solo at every opportunity). They do a version of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven", but then it's largely a guitar-oriented jam, as well as a version of "Dreams of Milk and Honey", from Leslie West's solo album Mountain from 1969 (which is where the band got its name). They also take on "Mississippi Queen", which only makes sense since that became their signature song.

To me this album is underrated, and I'll tell you why: I bought an old LP, for dirt cheap, at a flea market in Eugene, Oregon, and when I brought it home, the pressing wasn't that great, and the Audio Technica 440MLa cartridge even makes lousy vinyl sound great, but even this cartridge couldn't make it sound good. The LP came with a card warning you of the sound quality, because they had to cram more music that usual on side two (side two is nearly 30 minutes long, in late '71 that was probably the lengthiest single LP. Genesis, Klaus Schulze and Todd Rundgren were known to cram an hour, or even more on one LP, but that was later on, in 1971 Genesis still recorded albums barely 40 minutes long). Still Flowers of Evil, despite its shortcomings, is an underrated album and worth getting.

voila_la_scorie Mountain was formed in Long Island in 1969 by a collaboration with Leslie West (g/v), who had already recorded a solo album entitled "Mountain", and Felix Pappalardi (bass), who had production cred with Cream. Keyboardist Steve Knight and drummer N. D. Smart completed the original line-up; however, Smart left before recording of the first album began and was replaced by Canadian drummer Lawrence "Corky" Liang. Liang would help make Mountain history not only by playing drums on their first hit song "Mississippi Queen" but also by providing lyrics to an original song he had penned while in a previous band that he and West would turn into the lyrics for the classic heavy rocker.

Released in March 1970, "Climbing" features fist-pumpers like "Mississippi Queen", "Never In My Life" (which received praise for its riff from Jimi Hendrix who was in the studio next door), and the country-tinged "Silver Paper" and bluesy groover "Sitting on a Rainbow". The album also includes a variety of slower, melodious songs weighed with organ and heavy guitar but always featuring West's powerful, emotive vocals that oscillate between gruff bellows and soulful howls. The acoustic guitar instrumental "To My Friend" is a beautifully rendered piece that holds its own against Led Zeppelin's "Black Mountainside" or Jefferson Airplane's "Embryonic Journey".

Indicative of the times, "Climbing" features a variety of heavy guitar based music with a couple of acoustic numbers. There's a healthy of variety of moods; it sounds like each song was written with thought and consideration and nothing was intended to simply fill up any remaining space. As for my personal taste, the sometimes strong country/blues sound doesn't appeal 100% and so I find the Cream-Wheels of Fire styling of "The Laird" and the acoustic instrumental to be a pleasant addition. Even still, whether country/blues rocker or soulful heavy organ/guitar number, Mountain debuted with an emphasis on powerful heavy rock. And the production is very well handled, on par with any of the big bands of the day.

It's not an album I feel like listening to often and I'm more likely to put a song or two on a mixed playlist of early seventies heavy rock. But when I listened to it today as I wrote my review, I recognized that it was better as a whole than my impression had been. I often give lower ratings to proto-metal albums because they either lack a sufficient amount of heavy music or the production is sub-standard. This album is above average in both areas. A great heavy rock album from 1970.

1967/ 1976 This is my only album of this band in my discography. And this fact is not good: Mountain is/ was a great band and I'd like to find other albums.

Having said that I pass on to describe the music of Mountain. As writing is quite simple: Hard Rock without surprises, but well structured. Some songs are, however, almost poetic (see "Nantucket Sleighride", for example). In this compilation the two components (crude and refined) the music of the Mountain would be mixed with good taste. The final result is good and the music, aged as well, so it really involves.

A few "The Best Of" sound so good. And a few "The Best Of" deserve a place at the forefront in our discography. "The Best Of Mountain" is one of these!